In 1969, as the band imploded, the singer was 27, depressed and drowning in a sea of legal and personal rows. He hadn’t died, as rumour had it, but he was struggling. He introduces an oral history of how his family’s escape to a remote Scottish farm helped him move on from John, George and Ringo

The strangest rumour started floating around just as the Beatles were breaking up – that I was dead. We had heard it long before, but suddenly, in that autumn of 1969, stirred up by a DJ in America, it took on a force all its own, so that millions of fans around the world believed I was actually gone.

At one point, I turned to my new wife and asked, “Linda, how can I possibly be dead?” She smiled as she held our new baby, Mary, as aware of the power of gossip and the absurdity of these ridiculous newspaper headlines as I was. But she did point out that we had beaten a hasty retreat from London to our remote farm up in Scotland, precisely to get away from the kind of malevolent talk that was bringing the Beatles down.

When the cooking is this good, you don’t have to play every drum in the kit and bring in extra cymbals

Certain new restaurants I’m lured to semi-hypnotically, so rumours a few months back of an impending new venture from Dave Hart and Polly Pleasence slotted straight on to my “I’ll be there!” list. I still remember a long lunch seven years ago at their previous venture, the Folkestone Wine Company, where a piece of perfect pan-fried hake fillet topped with luscious squid and a zesty gremolata had me actually gasping with happiness. This was truly great cooking.

And I knew who the chef was, too, because I could see him through a hatch cooking my lunch while I sipped my appassimento. Hart has worked for Stephen Harris at The Sportsman near Whitstable, and over the years has run several other places all across Kent. Front-of-house Pleasence, meanwhile, recently had a hand in The Goods Shed, a twinkly, Dickensian-feeling market-restaurant next door to Canterbury West railway station. At the Folkestone Wine Company, the pair served up a simple menu of outstandingly good, French-leaning dishes. I recall Hart’s sweet soda bread with salted butter, as well as his homemade gnocchi stirred through buttery, wilted leeks and layered almost to suffocation point with good black truffle.

Big building projects bring financial and emotional pressures, but it’s important to work out why it has triggered such strong feelings for you

My husband and I have just built our dream house. After a year of planning and months of building, the builders have left and we can finally live there. The work was incredibly stressful, we spent a lot more than planned, and it triggered an anxiety disorder that I’m now struggling with.

The building work is ostensibly over, but there’s still work to do and money to spend to make the house fully a home, and I’m exhausted and depressed by that. Although we have an impressive house, we are also financially more stretched, which plays on my mind. But mostly it’s the feeling of the house – I don’t like its vibe. I don’t feel at home here.

Former England goalkeeper reveals full story behind her international retirement, her problems with eating and alcohol, and why she’d struggle on The Traitors

• Read an exclusive extract from Mary Earps’ book

“I’ve learned a lot about what truly matters in life,” Mary Earps says on a quiet and cloudy afternoon as, at Paris Saint-Germain’s training centre on the outskirts of the French capital, the former England goalkeeper reflects on the achievements and drama of her last five years. “My life has accidentally come into the court of public opinion. People talking about your performance comes with the territory but when it starts to become about your character, and assumptions people make about you, that can be really, really challenging.”

Between 2020 and 2023 Earps overcame depression, a drinking problem, eating issues, won the Euros with England, forced Nike to change their attitude to female goalkeepers, saved a penalty in a World Cup final and won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

The British actor stars in three major films over next few months and it is rumoured he’s even being considered for the next James Bond

He came to prominence with his portrayal of Prince Charles in The Crown, and now it seems that Josh O’Connor might be primed for his own coronation.

The British actor is in three major films between now and January – better known to film-lovers as awards season.

Will our survey of supermarket meatless sausages reveal hearty but healthy veggie bangers or rubbery tubes mechanically stuffed with joyless compost?

• The best (and worst) vegan cheese, tested

I was vegetarian in the 1980s, so I know how far meat-free sausages have come. In fact, some now taste almost identical to their ultra-processed meaty counterparts. Whether that represents progress depends on your perspective: are we creating healthier, more sustainable alternatives or simply replicating the industrial food system’s problems in plant form?

Veggie sausages split into two main categories. The first are what I call meat analogues, which are usually made with pea protein isolates (plant-based protein) or textured vegetable protein (TVP), a byproduct of the soya bean oil extraction process, and designed to imitate processed sausage meat. The second are made from mashed whole foods, such as chickpeas and vegetables, and are a less processed and more textural veg-love affair.

Police have arrested two people and counter-terrorism police are also involved in an investigation into the mass stabbing on a train from Doncaster to London’s Kings Cross on Saturday

• Police declare ‘major incident’ – follow the latest updates

• Explained: what we know so far

Nine people were being treated for life-threatening injuries after a series of stabbings on a train near Cambridge in eastern England on Saturday, and two men were arrested in what prime minister Keir Starmer called an “appalling incident”.

British Transport Police said counterterrorism police were supporting its investigation while it works to establish the full circumstances and motivation for the incident.

Publication of 2010 correspondence comes two days after Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his titles

The former Duke of York told Jeffrey Epstein “it would be good to catch up in person” months after the convicted sex offender was released from prison, newly released emails reveal.

The publication of the correspondence comes two days after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was stripped of his titles and struck from the official roll of the peerage in an attempt by Buckingham Palace to halt the damage caused by the former duke’s spiralling scandals.

Forty Labour and independent MPs call on Steve Reed to take ‘important step’ of defining anti-Muslim hatred

More than three dozen Labour and independent MPs have written to the housing secretary calling on the government to adopt a definition of Islamophobia, after recent figures revealed hate crimes against Muslims were up by nearly a fifth.

Forty MPs, including Labour MPs Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler, Kim Johnson and independent Andrew Gwynne, were among the signatories on the letter from Afzal Khan who wrote to Steve Reed on Friday asking him to adopt a definition of anti-Muslim hatred as an “important step” in addressing discrimination, prejudice and hatred the community faces.

Financial Conduct Authority defends interest rate of 2.09% as critics describe proposals as ‘hypocritical’

Victims of the car loans scandal could miss out on more than £4bn in compensation if the City regulator ploughs ahead with plans for an “insulting” interest rate in its redress scheme, consumer groups and claims firms say.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been accused of offering a reduced rate of interest which will be added to compensation from banks for borrowers caught up in the car loan commissions scandal.